Altech Technology Concepts, a subsidiary of the JSE-listed Altech Group, has launched business- and consumer-focused capped and uncapped broadband products on the back of a multimillion-rand investment in network infrastructure.

The company will offer uncapped broadband starting at R564,30/month for speeds of up to 4Mbit/s over Telkom’s digital subscriber lines, says CEO Wayne de Nobrega. This excludes Telkom line rental costs.

The company has also introduced capped and uncapped offerings to serve the business market. Uncapped business broadband costs either R1 425/month for ad hoc use or R2 166/month for a 12-month contract product that includes a router and enjoys higher priority and service on the network.

Business capped products start at R330,60 for 10GB of data, going up to R3 568,20 for 100GB on a top-tier priority network service. Consumer capped products start at R225,72 for 10GB.

De Nobrega says Technology Concepts, a sister company of Altech subsidiary Autopage Cellular, is offering the products on the back of a R30m capital investment in networking infrastructure. The company has created a network housed in Teraco’s data centre in Isando, east of Johannesburg, and has direct connectivity into Telehouse in London.

Technology Concepts provides fibre, wireless, Telkom Diginet and digital subscriber lines into the Isando facility.

The company has acquired bandwidth on two undersea cables, the Seacom system that runs along Africa’s east coast, and on the Sat-3 system in the west. “We’ve taken equal capacity on the cables and will continue to do so,” says De Nobrega. “We want the network to cater for fail-over without customers feeling the impact.”

In SA, Technology Concepts has signed peering agreements with multiple parties, including Internet Solutions, Telkom, Tenet and MWeb. The company also connects at the Johannesburg Internet Exchange, with plans to extend connectivity to Durban and Cape Town in the next three to six months.

It’s also established a switch to offer business customers voice-over-Internet Protocol services.

De Nobrega explains that Technology Concepts is focused mainly on the business market, but it made sense to offer services to consumers, too, to ensure maximum utilisation of its network.

Autopage Cellular, the country’s largest independent cellular service provider, will also soon begin marketing and selling Technology Concept’s broadband products to consumers, he says.

Unlike many of its larger rivals, the company, which employs 58 people — it’s hiring 18 more — is not investing in its own fibre infrastructure. “We have arrangements with other operators to use their fibre,” De Nobrega says.

The Altech Group has provided funding for the new network, which includes almost R70m in additional operational spending commitments. — Duncan McLeod, TechCentral